Human Development/Consciousness Evolution Record Type: Review   ID: 154
Sacred Eyes Keck, L. Robert
The author does not really define "sacred eyes," but he implies it is to see with one’s soul and to use "sacred vision" in contrast to "cynical vision." In a sense, it is the same advice recommended by Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard: to believe "the nobler hypothesis," which that all life has meaning. for if it does, and one denies it—who can even measure the depth of that loss? But if it is so, and one affirms it, then one is in an ideal position to connect with reality. Keck’s book is about human spiritual evolution, and in answering it he perceives the important role played by story. There not only is humanity’s story, there is each individual’s life story. Of ourselves we must develop a story that answers the questions (a) Why do I exist? (b) What is my purpose in life?, and (c) Is there a good reason to have hope or faith in the future? Then there is humanity’s story (which really is an outgrowth of the story of the Earth). Here the question is: (a) Does human evolution have a purpose, or are we just aimlessly wandering around through history? (b) If our time marks a major turning point in human evolution—what is dying and what is being reborn? He suggests that sound answers, answers with integrity, can only be found by using sacred eyes. He gives his own answers to the questions presented in the form of an historical overview of human life in three epochs: I. The Birth and Childhood of Humanity: Physical Development. II. The Adolescence of Humanity: Ego and Mental Development. III: Coming of Age into Adult Maturity: Spiritual Development (the latter is just beginning now). This is a useful book for EHEers because Keck sees the need to discover how one’s own life story fits into the overall story of human evolution. This, I suggest, can best be done by writing one’s EHE autobiography. Which he does in Chapters 7 and 12. He tells about the exceptional experiences of his youth, of how illness brought him to a halt—and then to rebirth, in a new career and in finding his vocation by following his blessings. As is true in so many cases, at a key turning point he says he was aided by several synchronicities. He notes, as we have, that crises not only spell danger but opportunity. Much depends on whether we choose to respond as a hero or as a victim. "The heroes and the heroines are those who turn a crisis they did not choose into a spiritual journey" (p. 220). He adds that there are "many other forms of unintended and unchosen crises to which we can choose the heroic adventure as our responses—mystical experiences, spiritual emergence, out-of-body experiences, and near-death experiences, just to mention a few" (p. 220). Thus, here he overtly touches on this Journal’s main object.
Publisher Information:	Indianapolis, IN: Knowledge Systems, 1992. 297p. Bibl: 285-288; Chap. notes: 278-284; Index: 291-297

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